I love that Corey and Kerri share my love of goofiness, silliness and laughter. It has gotten me through some of the most terrifying moments in my life. I learned it from my Mom actually. As she would lay helpless on her hospital bed suffering (from the next terminal, hopeless thing she would always recover from); she would crack jokes and make everyone around her laugh. And I do this too.
Laughter heals. Laughter makes my heart happy. Laughter is contagious. I always tell Kerri to smile: at herself in a mirror, at strangers, at her peers and friends. And 99.9% of the time, the person smiles back. That 1% can't be helped....they either are really in a bad place or just live to be negative.
So every time Kerri would fall as a baby, she would look at my reaction and I would hide my gasp and fear of her being hurt behind my smile and nervous giggle. And she would smile and giggle back, the fall all but forgotten. When she has a temper tantrum, I smile wider and wider, and she can't help but lift the corners of her mouth no matter how hard she tries to be angry. And always ends up laughing, the anger spent.
When hubby and I are stressed out, we laugh. We make fun of the situation. We turn our fears, sorrows, pain into something silly, goofy that we can make fun of. And slowly, they all diminish, lost in the giggles. No, they don't disappear...problems just don't magically go away. But the positive attitude and sense of humor put things into perspective and allow us to deal with it and get over it with a firm action plan - instead of wallowing in it.
And honestly, when all else fails, perspective kicks in. Because no matter how bad it gets, it could have been worse. So looking on the bright side helps. Yeah, we have some real serious things to deal with in life. But you know what? That's life. And we are here, we have each other, we are safe and loved. So we deal with it - are grateful for it (because it makes us stronger) - and laugh through it. And if you think it can't be done....I wish you had met my Mother.
Life with Kerri is "not sweating the small stuff - and it's all small stuff."